Relationship Matters
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Harry tries to sort out his relationship with Ginny a year after Voldemort's demise, while she is ill in the hospital wing. Will they still be able to come together, or did Harry wait too long? Completely AU, fluff! sick!Ginny/Harry


**Relationship Matters**

**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

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"All Charms classes are cancelled for the rest of the week due to Professor Weasley's illness," Minerva's voice penetrated Harry's ear, when he was absentmindedly eating his lunch.

'_Ginny? What might be wrong with her? She gets never ill, and a whole week_...' Harry mused and decided to go and check on her as soon as the afternoon classes were over. Not feeling hungry anymore, he pushed his plate away, apologized to the others and headed back to his office to prepare for his lesson. Today, he had to teach the third year students how to fight Grindylows.

When the students filed in for the first afternoon class, he heard two girls talk in the first row. "I heard that she became ill because she loves Professor Potter and he keeps ignoring her," one of the girls told her friend.

"Are you sure? But well, he certainly has lots of girlfriends," the other girl replied, giving Harry an enthusiastic glance.

'_Ginny is ill because I ignore her?_' Harry mused. '_Well, you told her off because you had to fight Voldemort off before you could enter any kind of relationship, but after Voldemort's demise you haven't even thought about talking to her about the matter_,' a small voice at the back of his mind spoke up.

For Harry, the afternoon lessons passed in a blur. He couldn't keep his thoughts away from Ginny and pondered what he should tell her, since she obviously expected him to act somehow, if it was true what the students said. Harry was so absentminded that he even dismissed the students of his last class ten minutes early and to the students' great pleasure completely forgot to assign homework. As soon as the last student had left the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, Harry hurried up to the hospital wing.

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"Hello Poppy, where is Ginny? I need to see her," Harry asked the Healer as soon as he entered the hospital wing.

"Hmm, I'm not sure if I can let you see her," the Mediwitch replied thoughtfully.

"Don't tell me that it's my fault that she is sick. I came to look after her, and I really have to speak with her. Don't worry, I won't make her feel bad; I really care for her," Harry explained and gave her a pleading look, noticing that the woman's features softened a bit, when she gave him a fond smile.

"All right, you may see her. In fact, I am very worried about her, because she really seems to be grieving about something, and I just can't get her fever down. Maybe it will help her to see you, provided that you're really sure about your feelings towards her. However, she has the flu, and I'd prefer if you kept a bit of a distance to her; I don't want you to become sick as well."

"All right," Harry promised and followed the Healer into a small separate room that was reserved for the teachers.

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Harry hesitantly entered the room and waited while Poppy quickly took Ginny's temperature and muttered something to herself. Ginny's face was as white as the pillow under her head. However, her cheeks were flushed and dark rings were surrounding her eyes, which were closed as if she was asleep. Her hair was strangely sticking to her forehead, and her forehead was scrunched as if she was in pain.

"Hi Ginny," Harry whispered and sat down on the chair a few steps away from the bed to which Poppy pointed her finger. "How are you, sweetie?"

Ginny let out a sigh, and her face took on a sad expression, when she mumbled, "Harry" in a small voice. However, she didn't show any other reaction. She only opened her eyes when Poppy put a calming hand on her shoulder and said softly, "Open your eyes and speak to Harry. He came to see you as soon as he heard you were ill."

"Is he really there?" Ginny asked incredulously and hesitantly opened her eyes. Harry could see that they were dull and glassy from the fever.

"Well, I'll leave you alone. Please keep an eye on her, Harry, and try not to tire her out too much," Poppy instructed her young colleague and quietly headed for the door.

"Of course Poppy," Harry replied and hesitantly sat on the edge of Ginny's bed as soon as the healer had left the room.

"You really came," Ginny whispered happily.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come earlier," Harry replied, carefully caressing her hot cheeks. "I didn't know that you were ill. I skipped a lot of meals in the Great Hall because I had so much work to do, so I didn't notice your absence. Poppy told me that you've already been here over the weekend."

"Yes, I've already been ill for a few days, but I only went to see her after the last class on Friday," Ginny admitted, before she shifted a bit, trying to put her aching head on Harry's lap.

Harry carefully pulled her head properly onto his lap and began to bathe her hot face with a cool cloth that he found on the night table. Finally, he adjusted the cloth to her burning forehead and carefully brushed each part of her face softly with his finger, noticing once more how beautiful every part of her face actually was, her orange eyelashes that matched her hair, her large brown eyes, even if they were dull and glassy, her small nose, and her cute ears. He carefully moved his finger around, caressing every part of her body that he could reach from his spot.

"I'm sorry, Ginny," Harry spoke up after a few minutes of silence, causing Ginny to quickly move her head away from his lap in a huff.

"I don't want to hear anything that you're sorry about," she croaked hoarsely, before she turned around to face the wall.

'_Oh, that went really well_,' Harry mused and started again.

"I'm s... I mean... I should..." '_Well, this is difficult_,' he thought. "Um... Ginny, do you want to become my girlfriend?" He blurted out.

Ginny turned around and croaked angrily, "You already asked me that years ago and a while after that you told me off, promising it would only be for a short time, but that's ages ago, and Voldemort is already dead for more than a year!" She began to sob fiercely, turning back to the wall immediately.

Harry was stunned. That was not the reaction he had expected. He quietly stood up and stepped over to the charmed window at the opposite side of the room. While he still mused what he could do, Poppy rushed into the room, apparently alerted by a spell she had put on her patient, and pointed her wand to Ginny's head. "40.8," she breathed, spelling a fever reducing potion as well as a calming draught straight into the young woman's stomach, before she turned to Harry with an angry expression on her face.

"Harry, I told you that you must not upset her!" she said sternly.

"I merely asked her if she wanted to become my girlfriend. I'm sorry," Harry replied and left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

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"Wait a moment, Harry," Poppy shouted after the young man, turning to Ginny once more. "Are you sure that you want Harry to leave?" she asked softly, knowing that her young colleague was the centre of all the fevered dreams she had witnessed at the woman's side over the last three days.

"No," Ginny mumbled tiredly. "Please tell Harry to stay."

Poppy hurried to the door, calling for Harry, but he had already left the hospital wing. "I'm sorry, Ginny, he's already gone. But I know that he'll come again. Now, there's no need to get upset now," she told the young woman, seeing that her eyes were filling with tears again.

"I'm so stupid," Ginny groaned hoarsely. "Why didn't I just say yes?"

Poppy noticed in concern that her fever spiked again.

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Harry spent the rest of the day sitting next to the lake. He didn't care about dinner time or curfew, and he didn't even visit the Gryffindor common room like he did every evening since he had been appointed the lions' Head of House when Minerva became Headmistress. Normally, he spent at least fifteen minutes in the common room each evening, so that the students had the possibility to speak with him about any problem they might have, but tonight all his thoughts revolved around a certain young Charms teacher, who was very ill in the hospital wing.

It was two o'clock in the morning when Harry finally headed into the castle in order to go to bed. However, a few minutes later, he somehow found himself in front of a small single room in the hospital wing. He hesitantly entered the room and quietly sat down on the edge of the bed as not to wake Ginny up. In the moon light that crept into the room through the charmed window, he could see pearls of sweat slowly dripping down from her temples, while her face still looked extremely pale except for the feverishly flushed cheeks.

Harry carefully wiped her hot face with the cold cloth, smiling contentedly when she sighed in relief. During the next hours, he remained at her side, helping her to sit up when she had to cough, bathing her burning face every now and then, and whispering soothingly into her ear. It was near the early morning, when he suddenly had the impression that her fever was going up. '_She suddenly seems so hot; I should better take her temperature; if I only could do that with magic_,' he mused. Harry quickly went over into the open hospital wing and retrieved a thermometer, which he carefully positioned under her armpit to take her temperature after cautiously pulling her pyjama top down over her shoulder as not to wake her up. Fortunately, she didn't even wake up when he took the thermometer out and sighed in relief. _'38.8; that's not good but much better than I had expected; maybe I should go back to my room and try to sleep for an hour before classes begin_.'

He put the thermometer down onto the night table, took a quill, and recorded the temperature together with the time on the card containing Ginny's data, before he quickly left the room and returned to his quarters. Afraid that he wouldn't wake up by his normal alarm clock, he set an additional magical alarm in order to get up in time for his lessons.

When he woke up, he had a terrible headache. '_Well, it's my fault that I didn't sleep enough_,' he mused, while he quickly got ready for class, deciding to skip breakfast as he didn't feel hungry at all.

He had just dismissed the students after the last morning class, when Minerva entered his classroom. "Harry, are you all right?" she asked in concern. "I missed you at dinner and breakfast."

"I'm sorry, Minerva. I was out on the grounds and forgot the time, and in the morning, I only got up in time for class because of a headache."

"Are you feeling better now, Harry?"

Harry sighed. "I still have a headache, but other than that I'm fine." '_There's no way I can take a nap instead of going to lunch_,' he thought, sighing inwardly.

"Then please accompany me to lunch. Severus always carries headache potions with him, so that you can ask him for one," Minerva told the young teacher, watching in concern how pale and tired he looked. "I believe Poppy told you before that you're not allowed to miss meals. I understand that it can happen; however, in your case it shouldn't happen," she added strictly.

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In spite of the headache potion Severus had given him, Harry didn't feel better in the afternoon and decided to take a nap after his last class. However, after class he was called to the Gryffindor common room, where the Quidditch team wanted to speak with him about their strategy. "I'm not sure if the Head of House is allowed to train his House team," he said pensively, "but nobody can complain if we just meet on the Quidditch pitch by chance, and I believe I could go to fly for a bit straight after dinner.

"Oh yes please, Professor," the older students, who knew from the time when they started Hogwarts what a good player their Head of House was, shouted.

Finally, it was ten o'clock when Harry could finally lie down for a nap. '_I need to visit Ginny_,' he thought, '_but I should try to get rid of that headache first_.' Unfortunately, it was already three o'clock in the morning, when he finally woke up. Instead of feeling better, he noticed that his throat had become a little scratchy and his eyes hurt a bit. '_Anyway, I have to see Ginny,_' he decided and scrambled out of bed.

As soon as he entered the room, he could hear Ginny mumbling in her sleep, "Harry, stay with me, don't leave me, Harry!"

"I'm here, sweetie, it's all right, I won't leave you," Harry replied softly, sitting down on the edge of his bed. He worriedly felt her forehead, finding it very warm and turned to the night table to study Poppy's records. From Poppy's writing he noticed that her fever had spiked again during the day and evening. '_Maybe I should have come and visited her instead of going to bed early_,' he thought sadly, when he noticed that Poppy had written a small 'thank you' next to the record he had added to the card the night before. He sighed and picked up the thermometer to take Ginny's temperature, carefully sticking it under her armpit.

While he was waiting for a time that seemed endless to him, since his headache and his now sore throat were bothering him, he caressed the girl's face just like he had done the night before, until the thermometer finally beeped. With relief he noticed that her fever had come down a bit since the evening and quickly filled the data into Poppy's card. He placed a soft kiss on Ginny's cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry, sweetie, I have to go and lie down for a little while in order to be well enough to teach."

With a last glance at the smile on her face he left the room and went back to bed, again setting two alarm clocks in order to be up in time for breakfast.

'_Thank Merlin it's Friday afternoon_,' he thought when he finally dismissed the students of his last class, since he was feeling worse every hour. For a few minutes he pondered if he should lie down until dinner or go to visit Ginny first, but knowing that it wouldn't be easy to get up again, he decided to pay his colleague a visit first.

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He entered Ginny's room in the hospital wing, noticing that she was awake, looking over to the enchanted window. "Hey sweetie," Harry said gently, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"Hello Harry," Ginny replied happily, sitting up immediately.

Harry gave her a piercing look, seeing that she looked still ill but at least a bit better than the last time he had visited her during the day. "Are you feeling better?" he asked softly.

"I'm feeling much better, and I'd like to return to my quarters soon," Ginny replied. "Ah, by the way," she continued hesitantly, "When you came to see me two days ago, you asked me a question, and I didn't give you a proper answer. Could you ask that question once more?"

Harry sighed. He had already thought about that matter during the nights he had spent at her bedside. "No, I don't think the question was so good," he replied pensively.

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Seeing that Ginny gave him a horrified look, Harry quickly added, "I'd like to re-word the question a bit to..." He leaned over her, so that he was looking straight into her brown eyes and continued, "Would you like to marry me, Ginny? I love you, and I want you to become my wife." He slowly leaned into a kiss towards her mouth.

Endless minutes later, they separated, breathing heavily, and after catching her breath, Ginny quietly replied, "Yes Harry, I'd like to become your wife."

"I'm sorry," Harry began, "for not choosing a more romantic place to propose to you..."

"This place is as good as any other," Ginny replied laughing, pulling Harry in a bear's hug. "And since I'm your fiancée now, don't you think you should rescue me from here and take me to your quarters?"

"Poppy will throw a fit," Harry replied worriedly. "And I don't know if I can look after you properly."

"You can," Ginny replied. "You already did during the nights, didn't you?" She picked up the record card from the night table, pointing at his writings. "Poppy showed it to me."

"Show me," Harry took the card from her, added the time and three words, 'Proposed' and 'Answer: YES', before he put the card back. Then he quickly left the room in search for Poppy. "Sorry, Poppy, Ginny wants to ask you something."

Poppy didn't even look at him but hurried to Ginny's room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the girl sit in her bed, smiling at her. Ginny immediately pointed to the card on her night table, before she told the Healer, "My fiancé would like to take me with him to his quarters, so that he can look after me."

"Congratulations both of you," Poppy said happily. "I'm so glad for both of you; that's really good news!" However, then she went back into Healer mode and said sternly, "I'm not pleased to let you go, since you're still very ill. Moreover, I don't want Harry to get ill as well, since he is a bit delicate anyway. However, at least over the weekend it should be all right, but I will come twice a day and check on you."

"Of course, Poppy, I'd feel much better if you could come and check on her twice a day," Harry replied relieved.

The Healer handed Harry a bag with potions, the thermometer, and the record card and gave him explicit instructions what he had to do in order to properly care for his fiancée. Finally, the two young teachers were allowed to leave and slowly headed to Harry's quarters, which were very near to the hospital wing.

"Would you prefer the guest room or my bed?" Harry asked, smiling at his fiancée.

"Your bed," Ginny replied, leaning onto Harry, who saw immediately that she couldn't walk anymore and scooped her up into his arms to carry her into his bed.

'_I wish I could just lie down too_,' Harry thought. However, he had to take care of Ginny first. It was just about time for her check-up and potions, and Harry took her temperature, made her drink her potions, and fed her a few spoons full of chicken broth. Adjusting the alarm clock on the next time he had to look after Ginny, he lay down next to Ginny, cuddling her close. Ginny didn't wake up by the alarm and Harry carefully snuggled the thermometer under her armpit, softly wiped her face with a cool cloth, noticing that her forehead didn't feel warm to the touch anymore, and prepared the potions she had to take. Taking the thermometer out, he quickly spelled the potions into her stomach in order not to wake her up. Then he read the figures from the thermometer's display, noticing that they were strangely blurry. 'Is that 39.8? No, it's 38.9 or...' he mused. Not able to decide on a number, he stood up and walked over to the living room to have more light, but he still couldn't read the numbers.

Finally, he called Dobby, who told him, "It's 38.3, Master Harry. Is everything all right, Master Harry?"

"Yes of course, thanks Dobby," Harry replied, quickly filled in the data on the card, and scrawled back into bed, glad to be able to lie down.

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In the morning, Harry woke up to a cold hand on his cheek. He lazily opened his eyes and saw Ginny leaning over him, watching him in concern. "Hi sweetie, how do you feel?" he whispered, feeling that his throat was too sore to speak aloud.

"I feel fine, but are you all right, Harry? Your skin feels hot to me, and you look ill."

"I don't feel so well, but please don't tell Poppy; otherwise she will take both of us back to the hospital wing," Harry replied hoarsely.

"She will be here in ten minutes to check on me though," Ginny replied. "If you don't want her to know you should be in the shower or somewhere else while she's here, otherwise she would know just by looking at you."

"I have to go to Gryffindor for a few minutes to apologize that I didn't come to the common room yesterday and the day before," Harry decided.

"And tell them that you probably can't come today and tomorrow either because you're ill," Ginny instructed him strictly.

Knowing that Poppy would be able to enter his quarters at any time, so that he didn't have to wait and open the door for her, Harry quickly left his quarters and headed to the common room for an instant house meeting.

"I'm sorry to disturb you on a Saturday morning," he began. "I just wanted to apologize for not coming here during the last nights, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so that I even don't know if I'll be able to come tonight or tomorrow..."

"If you feel like you look, you should better go and see Madam Pomfrey, Professor," one of the older girls told him, and most of the students seemed to agree.

"All right, please be quiet, so that you can understand me," Harry croaked and continued, "Well in fact I have something else, which I wanted to tell you before you might hear it from other sources." Seeing that everyone was listening intensely, he told them, "All of you know Professor Weasley, who has been my girlfriend for many years. Yesterday, I proposed to her, and to my great pleasure she agreed. That's all, thanks for your attention," Harry croaked and left the room, followed by many good wishes and congratulations.

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Very anxiously Harry returned to his quarters, glad when he found Ginny alone. "Was Poppy already here?" he asked, sighing in relief when Ginny nodded her head. He slowly took his robes off and scrambled into bed, letting out a relieved sigh when his aching head came to lie on the pillow.

"Wait a moment, sweetie, don't sleep yet," Ginny's voice penetrated his ear. "I want to take your temperature first. Can you open your mouth for me?" she asked softly, carefully sticking the thermometer under his tongue, causing Harry to shiver vehemently.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Harry flung the thermometer out, placing it on the night table and quickly got up, holding on to the wall for a moment to overcome the dizziness. Then he slowly walked to the entrance door, closely followed by Ginny. Minerva entered the room, eying them strictly. "Ginny, go back to bed please; Harry, why didn't you show up for breakfast this morning and dinner yesterday?"

"Because I didn't want to leave Ginny alone and I had to look after her," Harry replied hoarsely, and Minerva gave him a surprised look.

"Are you ill as well, Harry?" she asked in concern.

"Yes; I just wanted to take his temperature; he feels very hot even to me," Ginny blurted out.

"That's a good idea," Minerva agreed, taking in Harry's flushed cheeks and the dark rings under his eyes. She took a step in Harry's direction and carefully extended a hand to feel his forehead. "You're burning up," she gasped and ushered both young teachers back to bed.

Ginny pulled Harry into her arm and coaxed him into taking the thermometer in once more. While they were waiting, Harry nearly drifted off to sleep, and the two ladies were talking animatedly, watching him like hawks at the same time. Finally, Minerva took the thermometer back and gasped. "40.8, Harry, your classes will be cancelled for the whole week I suppose. Ginny, do you think you're able to look after him although you're still sick yourself? Shall I come every few hours and check on both of you?"

Ginny gave the concerned Headmistress a grateful smile. "I think we'll be all right since I feel already much better; if not, I can Floo-call you, can't I? And Poppy promised to come twice a day anyway."

Ginny made Harry drink two potions and before Harry fell asleep, he registered wearily that she pulled him close in her arms and carefully stroked his hot cheeks, making him feel much better at once.

An infinite time later, he woke up, shivering, when a cold hand was fingering at his neck, trying to pull his T-shirt down over his shoulder. Only seconds later, he felt something icy stuck under his armpit and shivered badly at the cold touch. "It's all right, sweetie; I just have to take your temperature; it will be over soon," he could hear Ginny's soft voice, and he tried to relax, a small smile playing on his lips.

Harry nestled deeper into Ginny's arm, glad to be together with her in spite of feeling absolutely awful. He wearily noticed that she took the thermometer back and whispered, "Poor sweetie, your fever is so high that you must feel terrible. Can you sit up to drink a few potions?"

"No," he whispered back, feeling too dizzy and too cold to leave his comfortable position.

"All right, then I will spell them into your stomach," Ginny told him gently, and soon afterwards Harry noticed that he felt slightly better.

Harry sighed in relief when Ginny began to sponge his burning face and neck. Suddenly feeling extremely hot, he even tried to take his T-shirt off so that she could bathe his chest too. "So hot," he mumbled, shivering at the same time.

During the next few days, while Harry's illness was on its peak, Ginny was always there for him, holding him close, checking on him, magically feeding him potions, bathing, cuddling, and kissing him, and when Harry woke up feeling a bit better and more coherent he felt very grateful towards his cute fiancée.

"Thank you, Ginny," he whispered softly, "for taking care of me all the time and making me feel so much better."

"I have to thank you, sweetie," Ginny replied smiling, "for making me so much better by asking me to become your fiancée. I love you so much, and I promise that I will always take care of you."

"Love you too," Harry mumbled sleepily, suddenly feeling himself being pulled into a long kiss.

**The End**


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